


Onward

by orphan_account



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, M/M, Secret Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-15
Updated: 2016-01-15
Packaged: 2018-05-14 03:50:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5728555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Maybe this is why people talk about TIE Corps in a certain tone, why they get the uniforms and the medals and the exciting recruitment posters. Finn’s seen them, on his first ground assault, howling as they break through the clouds, spitting fire. Maybe this is why no one comes asking what a pilot is doing in the infantry barracks after curfew.</i>
</p><p>(Or: the one where they're both First Order soldiers, which is how you know it can't end well)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Onward

**Author's Note:**

> Listen, I don't normally go out of my way to write tragic doomed romance, but it's been a shit week and I'll take my catharsis where I can get it. Done for a [kink meme prompt](https://tfa-kink.dreamwidth.org/1841.html?thread=1847857#cmt1847857).

They get assigned at eighteen, their training done, evals coming in over a couple of days that pass in a blur. Finn feels tense despite his top marks and the fact that pretty much the entire base knows by now that Captain Phasma has singled him out for her unit.

Poe surprises everyone when he gets assigned to the TIE Corps. Finn too is surprised, though he doesn’t say so. He thought - they all thought, maybe Poe most of all - that there’d be menial maintenance job in store for him. Inglorious but much safer than any of them could hope for. Poe is smaller than most, even after his most recent growth spurt. He’s clumsy on the ground, fidgety and unfocused. A tactical mind, a good shot on a good day, but Finn has lost track of the times he had to cover him in simulations. 

The TIE Corps is a beast of its own. Infantry, that’s where most of them are. That’s where most of them stay. Poe moves out of their dorm, in with the other pilots, but Slip and Zeroes remain. For a few days there’s an odd tension between them as they move around the empty bunk. Poe has always been the most talkative among them, cracking jokes at the end of the day and filling every inch of space available with an intractable sort of cheerfulness. They miss him. It’s not something any of them would admit easily, but soon the tension breaks when Nines moves in with them. A tall Keshian with broad shoulders and amber eyes. Calm and calculated. A good bunch, Finn thinks. They’ll work well together. 

He misses Poe.

 

*  
They run into eachother after a couple of weeks in the mess hall. Since being assigned Finn has discovered that things are less strict. There’s a certain amount of freedom available even to the lowest rank as long as you do your job. Finn carries himself with more confidence now. He picks up his tray and crosses the hall to where Poe is waving at him from among his fellow pilots. He sits with them, quiet for the most part, observing. Their ground uniforms are different from his: black and sharp, with shoulder stripes for designation and rank. They look-- put together, Finn thinks. Poe looks different too, his hair grown out, black and curly when he pushes it out of his eyes. He speaks, like before, as much with his hands as with his mouth, and people pay attention. They’re drawn to him, just like Finn is drawn to the new spring in his step and his bright grin. When Poe bumps their shoulders together on the way out and says, _can we go somewhere?_ Finn cannot move quickly enough. 

(Poe still needs to grow into himself a little. He’s still all sharp angles and gangly limbs, but he takes everything Finn gives him with a hint of laughter in his breath and his arms tight around Finn’s shoulders)

 

*  
There’s something about a TIE fighter in flight. Finn never had a reason to pay attention before. On the ground they seem ugly and ungainly but once they’re up they are so fast and light that controlling them seems almost impossible. Maybe this is why, Finn considers, people talk about TIE Corps in a certain tone, why they get the uniforms and the medals and the exciting recruitment posters. He’s seen them, on his first ground assault, howling as they break through the clouds, spitting fire. Maybe this is why no one comes asking what a pilot is doing in the infantry barracks after curfew. 

 

*  
Zeroes laughs at him. You’ll get us demoted, he says. We’ll be shoveling shit for the rest of our lives. There’s no rancor in it though. They all cover for him, distract Captain Phasma’s attention with inconsequential reports when it strays to the open door of their dorm. Inside, Poe tries to muffle his laughter into his hands and Finn hisses _shut up, shut up_. Bites his neck sharply when he won’t, and Poe has to muffle his moans.

 

*  
The Captain tells him that being an officer is not without certain benefits. Leniency is one of them, Finn has known this for a while. But it never occurred to him that she really wants him to succeed.

 

*  
Takodana is easy: secure a perimeter, flush out any resistance. They’ve done it hundreds of times. It might as well be a sim. 

Poe leads air support for them. Finn comments that it’s precaution more than necessity and Poe shrugs, going for noncommittal and failing spectacularly. Orders, he says.

He loves this. 

Finn walks the entire length of the flight bay to on the way to his transport. Poe flashes him a smile and a lazy salute. He’s in his flight suit already, hair slicked back, helmet under his arm. _Stars_ , he looks good. 

Finn smiles back, self-assured, and calls out: _see you, flyboy._

 

*  
Takodana is easy: Poe takes out a dozen Resistance X-wings in under two minutes. He’ll be decorated, they do this sort of thing for pilots. 

Finn and Nines have just finished covering the western perimeter when he hears the change in the pitch, the howl of twisted, burning metal hurtling towards the ground. 

It starts above him, the heat and impact shock wave nearly knocking him down.

It starts inside him, long and shuddering and savage.


End file.
